Tipperary’s Paul Curran is far from finished

There are a few misconceptions that former Tipperray captain, Paul Curran, wants to set you straight on.

Firstly, Kieran McGeeney's role in the Tipperary camp. It, says the defender, is not as significant as it has been made out. The former Kildare football manager and current Armagh selector was recruited by Eamon O'Shea as a psychological coach last November.

“I haven’t met him at all. When I wasn’t part of it you would swear that Kieran was up there at every training session the way some lads were talking. Maybe every month to six weeks we would see him. He doesn’t have as big a part as it is made out to be."

Next, Curran's fitness. He's not finished. Not by a long shot if he has his way. He likely won't start against Limerick this Sunday but he's moving in the right direction after hip surgery.

His last piece of action was in the Super 11s game in Notre Dame last October but he knew the joint was damaged. Before that, it was a club game for Mullinahone in June where the injury ruled him out of the qualifier against Kilkenny.

Pat Carton in the Whitfield Clinic in Waterford has been his saviour. "About a month ago I was really disheartened. I went back running after six weeks, probably the worst thing I did was getting back in with Tipp, I was pushing it too much. I had to stop.

“I went back down to Pat Carton and he reassured me. He told me to stop running and get back cycling and just mobilise it again and I did all that and it seems to have worked."

The former captain won't be too downhearted should he fail to make the match-day panel. "The backs are playing quite well, James Barry has slotted in at wing back. May the best man get it, that’s my philosophy."

There's also the fallacy in some quarters of the county that the players don't care enough. Let Curran bring you back to the Tipperary dressing room after losing to Kilkenny in last year's qualifiers.

“It was very emotional afterwards. That feeling was similar to the 2009 All-Ireland so that just showed how much it mattered to the lads and showed that as a unit we were getting closer."

But the panel know their commitment has to manifest itself into a result on Sunday. Tipperary's last Championship win came in July 2012! “Lads are aware of that. I didn’t even know about it until Eoin Kelly said it. Eoin would know everything inside out."

Sidelined, Curran was absolved of blame in the run of three league defeats across February and March. But it didn't stop supporters approaching him about what was going wrong.

"People would come up to you and ask you how things are going on, that they were going badly and they would be asking me for the answers. And I would be saying I don’t know because I’m not in there and it really hit home that when you are on the outside you haven’t a clue what is going on."

But back inside it he can detect a deep determination to make amends for the defeat to Limerick last year. The performance against Kilkenny last month should stand to them but they don't expect pats on the back for it.

“Sunday will tell if there is more confidence. We were extremely disappointed, there is no hiding that. We’re kind of tired of hearing of it being a great game and hard luck. It doesn’t wash with us anymore.

“We met the following day and said we had to move on because Championship is a completely different animal. You can’t compare league with Championship - I know that from the amount of years I have been there and the older guys try and impart that onto the younger guys and tell them."

The painful motivation that Limerick had last year after losing to a Tipperary fightback in 2012 has transferred to Curran and Co.

"I think Limerick were better on the day - there is no point in dressing it up any other way. They deserved it, they were hungrier, the won more of the dirty ball and they took their chances.

“They had that hurt from the year before when they felt they left it behind them and maybe they did but maybe it was a good comeback from us.

“But you can’t blame anything in particular. If we had got the one or two goals, it would have been interesting."